One of the game’s most awesome and thrilling moments was when Granderson robbed Chris Coghlan of a home run.
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Kyle Schwarber hit a home run in Game 1, but that is Chicago’s only long ball of the series.
(AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh).
“The minute you think they’re naïve enough to think this is over”, Mets manager Terry Collins said, “you’re making a big mistake”. A few players from both clubs were bundled up with balaclavas, and it’s not as if Chicago is a warm-weather city early in the baseball season; Cubs players ought to be used to chilly nights with the wind howling off Lake Michigan. We’ve heard Joe say it a lot. We are talented. We’ll show up tomorrow, and I expect our guys to be ready to play, and was that just the message. “We’re going to put ourselves in the best scenario to win whether that’s pitch to him or pitch around him”.
DeGrom is coming off a pair of impressive victories in the NL Division Series, albeit for different reasons.
The 27-year-old was dominant in Game 1 at Los Angeles, striking out 13 while pitching seven scoreless innings in New York’s 3-1 win. The Cubs have already used their best two pitchers and are now forced to send out Kyle Hendricks for Game 3.
Murphy’s emergence as a home run slugger has surprised everyone; only three players with five or more home runs in a single postseason, Melvin Upton Jr.in 2008, Todd Walker in ’03 and Delmon Young in ’11, had a lesser home run ratio than Murphy did during the regular season. If he doesn’t give up the homer to Murphy, he’s probably staying in the game past the fifth inning, although the Cubs’ bullpen again did a good job of shutting the Mets down.
You can tell the Chicago Cubs are feeling the pressure of this postseason when pitcher Trevor Cahill is throwing a football to his teammates running patterns in the Wrigley Field outfield.
Those are important numbers against the patient Cubs, who finished second in the majors to Toronto with 567 walks this season.
“I don’t want our guys to change based on an umpire in the previous game, it could change in the next game”, Maddon said. It’s just depending upon the guy.
In the 2001 NLCS with Arizona, Counsel collected three multi-hit games, doubled three times, and drove in four runs in helping the D-Backs to a series win over the Braves. This is why you want the ball.
The Cubs have plenty of faith in Hendricks to help tilt the momentum in their favor in Game 3, even going up against Mets ace Jacob deGrom.
The good news is that the Cubs get to go home for three games, where they’re 2-0 in the playoffs so far.
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“He’s swinging a hot bat”, Hendricks said. “Sometimes the best thing to do is pick your spots”. Michael Cuddyer had a ready explanation for Murphy’s breakout performance; he noted that elite pitchers figured they couldn’t strike Murphy out, so they challenge him.
